I have attached the recipe files in a .zip. The spreadsheet is useful for scaling the brine and so on.

So I went to the store and got a tri-tip.

Pastrami is usually made from a well marbled brisket. This cut is not available in small amounts, so I use something else. Tri-Tip isn't the best, it will be a bit dry, but not too bad. Use the cut untrimmed, you want as much fat on it as possible.

Weigh the meat.

This cut came in at 3lb 7oz, (3.4375lb.) Enter the value into the title on the spreadsheet

I have been brining with this container. A 4 liter food service thing.

Now lets see if the meat fits.

The fun part about making pastrami is that you can always make two pastrami's.

Cut the meat so that it will fit.

Now for the fun part. Making the brine.

You will need salt, prague powder #1, sugar, and garlic.

I will be adding some vitamin C too.

You need to get the volume of brine to make.

I will borrow an old greek technique and do that by filling up the container with water.

Now pour the water off into a bowl.

Now you can use a measuring cup to get the volume of the water. Throw the water out.

Enter the value into the spreadsheet, in the cell below the meat weight.

Print out a copy of the scaled recipe.

Now the brine can be made.

My container needed 8 cups of water to cover the meat.

8 cups of brine will use:

4T Salt, pure

1.6T Cure, #1(Prague powder #2, pink salt)

1.6T Sugar

3.2T Garlic, chopped

0.5t Ascorbic Acid

~.8t Baking Soda

Cure #1 is Prague Powder #1, also called pink salt.

It is 1 part Sodium Nitrite, 15 parts Sodium Chloride.

So it is 6.25% nitrite in salt.

A little red food color is added to make it look different from salt.

I bought it in bulk at a restaurant supply store.

The nitrite makes the meat turn red.

Nitric Oxide binds with the myoglobin in the beef.

I think is also keeps the contams from growing too.

I read that the nitrosamines that are produced by the nitrite can be eliminated by adding ascorbic acid(vitamin C).

The acid needs to be neutralized otherwise the nitrite will form nitrous acid and decompose into nitric oxide and you will smell something very similar to chlorine gas.

So, add 8 cups of clean water to the bowl. I use RO water, demineralized water.

Add the salt, cure, and sugar.

Remove a little water into a cup.

Add the ascorbic acid to the water, mix.

Using a 1/4t spoon drop some baking soda into the water.

It will start to fizz. Swirl the solution until it stops fizzing.

The carbonate neutralizes the acidity and releases carbon dioxide.

Continue to add baking soda until the fizzing stops.

Carefully pour the solution into the brine.

Excess soda will sink to the bottom of the cup.

Sodium Erythorbate can also be used. It is the same thing, easier to use too. Just add it in.

So now you have the brine put together.

Now stir to dissolve the salts and sugar.

Time to work on your knife skills and chop the garlic.

Get what you think will be at least enough garlic, 3.2T in this case

Personally, I think you cannot have too much garlic, so this is a minimum amount.

Thank to you Dipole I was inspired to make my first homemade Pastrami last week. It turned out a lil to salty so next time i will let it soak in the clean cold water for longer. I added some other item to mine though, Coriander, Dill,mustard seed and a ton of pepper corns. I will definitely be watching fro good deal on roasts to do some more.

Oh yeah and Thanks to Juthro, I also cured some Canadian Bacon too. i was quite happy how that one turned out for be my first time.

Im working with a Treager pellet smoker. If you dont mind (time and $$$ permitting) I would like to grab a roast (with the most marbleized and fatty i can find) and get it soaking in the brine. Give it a good low and slow smoke on Sunday. Come back and post some pics to add to your thread here. Ha maybe which i doubt i will pull this off in a week, i can grind up some of my rye grain that normally use for spawn to make some rye bread. I can prolly use some info from your bread recipe with some substitutes in ingredients and a few tweeks to make a loaf. I also had to pick all my cucumbers today in anticipation of a freeze tonight so I see some homemade pickles in the future too.

I hope Dipole wont mind but thought this would be a good place to talk about the pastrami that I am attempting to make.

With St Patty's day at hand, I picked up a couple of the packed in brine corned beef on sale. I am going to try take advantage of the meat already being brined, and finish it up in the smoker after I spice it how I want.

I'm trying a small chunk of what the package called point, but what I would call flat. It weighs in at just barely over 3 pounds. I soaked it overnight in freshwater, changing the water about 3 times, to help draw some of the salt out.

I then gave it a light coating of cheap yellow mustard. It will help the rub to stay on, helps keep moisture in the meat, and contributes a lot to making a nice bark on the outside of the pastrami. I promise, it doesn't taste like mustard when it is all done. I then applied a liberal amount of rub on all sides of the meat.

I just put the meat on the smoker about 10 min ago. I'm guessing it will be around 1 3/4 hrs cook time per pound. It's just a little bigger than 3 lbs so my guess is somewhere between 5 and 6 hrs. We'll see what happens. I'll try and remember to snap some pics once my battery has recharged.

I'm running at 235* right now, my plan is to shut the smoke off when the meat reaches 160*, and then close the dampers down and turn the smoker up to 250* until it is finished cooking. (it stalled about 138* but is just starting to push past that now). If I feel I need to I can kick the smoker up to 275 to finish it, but I'll wait to see how we are doing.

Once I the meat reaches 200* my plan is to foil it, and once cool, refrigerate it until tomorrow. Then its pastrami reuben sandwich time.

I too prefer pastrami to corned beef. I hope it turns out well, but I'll share the results either way :)